The present invention relates to cable television systems and apparatus, and more particularly to the provision of different commercial messages to different demographically targeted cable television audiences. Although the invention is described in the context of cable television systems, it will be appreciated that it has application in comparable systems, such as satellite broadcasting systems and the like.
Viewers of commercial television are well aware that a typical television channel contains television programs with periodic commercial message breaks. Advertisers sponsor television programs by purchasing space for their commercials during the broadcast of the program. Although different commercials are often run for the same television program in different geographic areas, there has been no way to target specific commercials to specific television viewers on a case-by-case basis.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for targeting specific commercial advertisements to demographically selected audiences. Such a system would enable commercial advertisements to be matched to specific television viewers, thereby more efficiently utilizing advertising budgets. It would be further advantageous to maintain real-time records of demographic characteristics of particular television viewers and the programs they watch, for subsequent retrieval and analysis.
The present invention provides such a method and apparatus.